Das Judenthum in der Musik
Judaism in music is an anti-Semitic essay Richard Wagner, the during his stay in Zurich he wrote in 1850. On September 3rd and 9, 1850, he appeared in the edited by Franz Brendel " Neue Zeitschrift für Musik " under the pseudonym K. [ Karl ] Freigedank. 1869 Wagner published the essay greatly expanded as a separate pamphlet under his own name.
Formation
The essay can be regarded as the culmination of a literary feud that The Prophet in the NZfM in January 1850, with several meetings of Meyerbeer's opera, in which a " cosmopolitan Musikstyl " had been accused of " unpatriotic Meyerbeer ". Wagner, who had 1850 Meyerbeer rated yet positive in a letter to his friend Theodor Uhlig March 13, Uhlig's changed under influence his opinion.
With his contribution under the pseudonym Freigedank Wagner referred to a above analysis products, the Uhlig wrote in the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, and had thereby expressed about the " Hebrew taste in art ." Wagner considered it, as he himself writes, necessary to discuss this subject in more detail to explain " the involuntary repellent, which has the personality and the nature of the Jews for us to justify this instinctive aversion, of which we still clearly shows that it is stronger and more prevalent than our conscious zeal to rid ourselves of this aversion. "
The first essay did not attract much attention, with the exception of a protest of eleven professors of the Leipzig Conservatory to Franz Brendel, editor of the " Neue Zeitschrift für Musik " , which prompted these to resign.
In 1869, Wagner published the essay again, this time as an independent pamphlet under his own name with a dedication and a brief preface and detailed epilogue to Marie of Mouchanoff - Kalergis. This had a deficit in 1860 of his concerts in Paris with 10,000 Frs. covered.
Content
After introductory remarks about a supposed great power fullness of the Jews ("... the, creditors of the Kings ' to the king of the faithful become. " ) Represents Wagner in his essay the thesis that " the Jew " in itself " incapable " was " by his appearance, his language, least of all with his song, artistically known to us admit it, " he" could only repeat "or" nachkünsteln ". At the same time Wagner stated in the public conversation with Jews in their speeches "cold indifference " and a "lack purely human expression". However, is " the Jew " in the music for the control of public taste gets.
He criticizes the musical work of Jewish composers of his time. As educated Jews they were anxious to cast off the " salient features of their lower co-religionists " of himself. The very fact but it is designed to " deep soulful sympathy with a large single- aspiring community " have to interpret the unconscious expression of the true musician and poet, not capable. What " the educated Jew " I pronounce, " he artistically manifest themselves " may, "could only be the indifferent and trivial, because his whole engines to art indeed a luxurious, unnecessarily just" be. Wagner with particular emphasis on Mendelssohn Bartholdy, the already Heine had in 1842 awarded "lack of naivety". In his major theoretical work " Opera and Drama " of 1852 Wagner had expressed the same criticism of Meyerbeer. Jacques Offenbach 's operetta composer, on the other hand learns in his public musical complacency no appraisal; he finds in " Jaques O. " as a complete slating his musical qualities only in passing in one sentence mention.
In 1850 Wagner had written the essay with the intention " to fight the influence of the Jews on our music with prospects of success yet ." With the re-release in 1869, he sees himself as the underdog of an alleged Jewish agitation ( he even speaks of a 'reverse persecution of the Jews "). The term of his pseudonym was " the enemy 's strategic resources " to his - where fighting in the hand - Wagner. With the re-release under his own name he wants to disclose its position against its own following. At the same time he speaks to the hope " that only this openness also friends in the enemy camp, not so much out to me that could strengthen the struggle for their own emancipation true. "
The publication of 1869 attracted many replicas being taken, Joseph Engel, " Richard Wagner, Judaism in Music, a defense ", 1869; E. M. Oettinger, " Open Billetdoux to Richard Wagner ", Dresden in 1869; . Truhart and A., " An Open Letter to Richard Wagner ", St. Petersburg, 1869 The writer Gustav Freytag threw Wagner, in a review of Scripture: 'For the purposes of his pamphlet he himself appears as the greatest Jew ".
With regard to the extent to which the anti-Semitism of Wagner anticipates mental conditions of the Holocaust in Nazi Germany, the following text section in the epilogue of the publication from 1869 is revealing: "Whether the decline of our culture can be arrested by a violent projection of the decomposing foreign element, can I do not judge because this forces would have to include, whose existence is unknown to me. In contrast, if we are assimilated into the way this element that it jointly zureife the higher education of our nobler human systems with us, it is evident that not the concealment of the difficulties of this assimilation, but only the most open disclosure of which may be conducive thereto. "
Another theme of the ongoing confrontation with the writing is the extent to which they must influence the interpretation and aesthetic judgment of musical and dramatic works of Richard Wagner.
Basically speaking Wagner Jewish artists from every form of originality. They may know their craft masterly, but the result is always deception, yes its a lie, as it performs the example of Heinrich Heine:
Ultimately, would - as Wagner - the Jews just a way to get back into the circle of civilized humanity, by means of a " self destruction again laboring saving work ." He transposed so that a figure of thought in the terminology of his redemption metaphysics that Karl Marx is found in the nucleus in 1843 in his essay On the Jewish Question ". The social emancipation of the Jews is the emancipation of society from Judaism " As an example, Wagner performs in the final chord of his Pamphlet from 1850 to Ludwig Borne, the antipodes of Heine:
Jens Malte Fischer ( see Bibliography, p 85-87 ) writes to this end: " From this conclusion on the basis, there has been some misinterpretations which in the keywords, doom 'and' self-destruction ' the destruction of European Jewry in the 20th century wanted to see preformed. Such an interpretation seems to me to be determined by the consequences of anti-Semitism in the 20th century since, at least from the tightening of anti-Semitism in the late Wagner, as they depict in the ' regeneration writings ' of the late period and the often -quoted statements in Cosima's diaries. We are, however, kept the text to read as he looks ahead to us from the year 1850. " Fischer explains that " extermination "and" redemption " Fundamentals of myths led fantasy Wagner, as is exemplified in the Kundry figure in Parsifal represents a Ahasuerus figure: "redemption, resolution and mere extinction is their only promised when once a purest, blühendster man would resist their powerful seduction. [ ... ] It feels that only the man could redeem devastating " [ Wagner, prose sketch for Parsifal, August 1865 ]. Fischer: " Destruction ',' self-destruction 'and' salvation ' are therefore at Wagner not per se words that began with' extermination ' must have to do with murderous intentions. The concluding passage of Wagner's writing plays significantly with Christian redemption ideas. [ ... ] The Jews can participate in this process, but they must fulfill a crucial precondition, by ceasing to be Jews " His conclusion:". Between the distinct Proto racism of the text and the pathetic -apocalyptic cloudiness of the conclusion gapes an insurmountable logical abyss. "
In the inhumanity that exists in the displacement of morality by the philosophy of history, see Carl Dahlhaus the "poisoning effect " of Wagner's pamphlet: